The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-11-27
PEONAGE In THE SOUTH.
what Has Resulted from Persistent At
tempt to Establish Quasi-Slaye System.

Ccrrespondence Of the Indianapolis Journal.
MoNTGosfERY, Ala, Nov. 23.-This is the land
OF ruinous credit and fearful extortion. For
more than twenty years the farmers of this
Whole section have been year behind, each
Year buying everything upon credit, to be paid
tejr in the fall when their cotton is sold" Flour,
Meat. corn, fertilizers. farming utensils, and
family supplies of every description have been
bought thus, upon credit The cost of this
Credit has been enormous, sometimes reaching
aY high as 100 and 200 per cent have
<pown farmer, reliable. good man, required
10 pay for credit on bill of -four, meat and
bther heavy groceries, from the 1st Of August
till the LIST of October two months more than
(46 per cent. advance on cash prices.-equivalent
&c 275 per cent. for twelve months. These extor-
lions, Of course, have ruined many and crippled
all But they are part of q system that or;gi-
mated here soen after the late war. The poiiti-
cal reconstruction of the South is easily traced
in historical records, the acts of Congress and
State legislatures, conventions. ETC.; but. at the
same time, another reconstruction, one OF bust
ness methods, was going on silently. 1t was not
made a matter of record, and hence is more diff
fcult to trace in its progress The first business
problem to secure the freedman's labor
without paying wages in money. Planters. and
others, needing labor. very early reached the
conclusion that the circulation of money among
the blacks and poor whites would render them
too independent. To pay cash for work when
done must be avoided at all hazards Any
aud every device was resorted to rather
than to pay cash for labor All the odium that
was attached to abolitionism in slave times
put upon anything that looked like paying mon
ey for work. 1t was made sort of heresy, to
be punished until the hereto recanted
ruined Money in the hands of freedman
poor white regarded by the ruling classes
with supers titious horror. Emancipation of
the slaves was terrible; but to pay those former,
slaves money for their work could not even be
thought of for moment. This strange notion
assumed all the forms of fanaticism. And back
10 this notion may be traced. logically and clear
iy, the present depressed condition of agriculture
In the cotton States. The persistent attempt to
make the freedman peon. to keep him depend
snt, has brought these States to the brink of
ruin. Within few miles of this city improved
farms can be bought at four, five and six dollars
per that. at the distance from Indi-
annapolis. would be worth to-day from seventy
to hundred dollars per acre. Lands. no better
In any respect. now selling there for ten and,
in some instances, twenty times what they will
bring here. Again, after twenty years of vexa-
ton and Disappointment hundreds and thou
sands OF farmers find themselves worse off than
when Lee surrendered at Appomattox. Their
entire property, real and person al. mortgaged;
they have no hope of paying even their debts; and
there remains for them only the bitterness of
despair. Why is this?
A multitude of explanations may be offered.
The truth is this: The owners of the soil of
these States never accepted the emancipation of
the slaves accomplished fact. True, they
have at no time ever hoped for, or even thought
~f - ,nf eli Thnrv hnu al
along understood that it is impossible to restore
slavery. But they have considered it quite
practicable to establish peonage instead of
slavery. What is peonage2 One may learn all
about the meaning of the word and the nature
of the institution in Mexico A peon, in Mex
ico is a dependent laborer, kept constantly in
debt to his landlord. He is not hired to do
much work for 30 much pay. But he becomes
tenant upon some hacienda, or plantation, upon
hopelessly in debt for the rest of his life.
Should he wish to leave his landlord and move
upon any other estate, he can do so only by the
owner thereof becoming security for his indebt
edness his former landlord. The landlord
who receives peon from another estate and al
lows him to settle upon his land, thereby be-
comes bound in law, to pay that poems debt to
his former landlord. In brief. the law gives the
landowner a sort Of mortgage upon the body Of
the peon.
Slavery having been abolished in the South
ern States peonage considered the next
best thing. Every energy has been bent upon
the establishment of this institution in the cot
ton States. The various attempts at legislation
upon this subject would be ridiculous had they
not been calamitous in their results. The
terrible consequences that have flowed from this
folly make it OF tragedy than comedy.
But. like true Bourbons. the authors of this
madness refuse to be taught by experience,
however bitter. Lands deprecated in value,
mortgages, debts. financial ruin and bank
ruptcy have failed to wean them from a project,
whose only aim was TO get labor for less than
its market value Instead of all this deviltry
and nonsense of peonage, free labor, in tine full
sense of that term, presented no real difficulties.
There has never been the shadow of excuse
for all this indirection in dealing with the negro
poor white man, of the South. There was
still less excuse for beginning it. For few
years after the late war money was plenty in all
the cotton States At the close of the there
manned in the hands of the planters nearly all the
cotton that had been raised for four years. The
Southern ports having been blockaded. but little
cotton had been sold exported Some though
only a small quantity comparatively, had been
destroyed by the armies. A very large quantity
was still in the hands of the planters In 1865.
and for some years thereafter, cotton command
ed q very high price, say from 80 to so cents per
pound. Hence there plenty of money in
the whole cotton growing region-more then
thsn there has ever been since. The planters
tEnn could easily have hired the freedmen and
poor whites and paid them wages in money.
They refused to do this not for lack of money.
but because they had agreed among themselves
to establish peonsge instead of slavery; that is,
by general consent and agreement among the
planters, it was resolved to keep the freedmen
ard poor whites in a dependent, helpless condi-
sion, and to allow them to accumulate
money or acquire property, If it could possibly
be prevented. To accomplish this purpose,
they rented their lands to the freedmen and
poor whites for a share of the crop-generally q
Fery liberal share-that is about one half of the
cotton. The landlord furnished everything,
horses. mules, harness. plows, seed. ETC.; the
tenant was required to cultivate the crop and
ind his own ''rations;' that Is, board himself.
This, as it was intended to. put the tenant lin
tight to use expression peculiar to the cot
ton State. He must buy meat, bread and other
necessaries for whole year. until he should
have made a crop of cotton. The tenant had no
money and no credit. He at the mercy of
his landlord. The poor white negro
must get his landlord to stand for him; that is,
to become surety for years supplies. By
private understanding between the landlord and
the merchant who credited the tenant, years
supplies always amounted TO more than the ten
ants share of the crop The tenant became
naon. Whather there WAS act of the Legisla-